The first 250 Friends who sign-up to give $10 a month will receive a punchcard for four, buy one, get one free cones, available through September 2010.

The first 250 Friends who make a one-time, $120 gift will receive a punchcard for 12 monthly buy one, get one free cones, also through September 2010. You can sign up to be one of 1000 Friends of Local Matters on the website or in person at Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream in the Short North on Saturday, October 3 from 4:00-10:00 p.m.

don’t think it’s on the shelves yet, but check out the june issue of food & wine for eight recipes from jeni, including a version of the gallo family gold medal award winning sour-cherry lambic sorbet, adapted for the home cook.

(for anybody who doesn’t know, the csca’s a nonprofit of graphic designers, writers, illustrators, photographers, and other creatives engaged in the communicating arts.)

and last thursday was the creative best awards show at arena grand, the annual showcase for some of the country’s best work that just happens to come right from our own fertile backyard here in central ohio, recognizing those ‘who’ve pushed boundaries. played by the rules. and broken some of them.’

element walked away with TWO awards of merit this year for superior work in the identity design category — the first, for their reimagination of the jeni’s brand and packaging; the second, for their reconception of our agency brand plus an assortment of sticky deliverables. (the big man hasn’t yet okayed the $ for a website redesign at the agency level, so if you want to see some of their unbelievable work, send me an email and i’ll send you a letter. better yet, have me design an insurance program for your creative small business and i’ll give you a bound proposal. if that appeals to you, stay tuned, because we’ll be launching a separate site for the new shop-within-a-shop soon!)

not only do these guys do great work, they do great local work.

so congratulations to the whole element crew! i never would’ve have brought you in if i didn’t think your work was weapons-grade. but the multiple generations in our office think and work markedly different. and identity design is one of those concepts that, while for you and me it’s a no-brainer, for older generations (though of course there are exceptions), at least in this industry, at this office, let’s just say it’s one of those concepts that wasn’t immediately grasped. which is part of the reason i’m creating new things here: so we can be fleet-footed.

beyond element’s exceptional work for local, independent businesses, their commitment to clintonville, and the fact that they roast their own delicious coffee beans, it’s stuff like john experimenting with a four-day work week, asia’s hope, and the proposed micro-enterprise initiative, stir, that makes me believe in element.